Classical, April 27

The week’s essential new releases

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
GESUALDO
Responsoria (1611)
La Compagnia del MadrigaleGlossa GCD922803
The private life of the Italian Renaissance’s most avant-garde composer has
tended to overshadow his music. The murder of his first wife, Maria
d’Avalos, and her lover in 1590 has defined our view of Gesualdo: his later
life was spent in depressive seclusion, perhaps wracked by guilt. Two years
before his death in 1613, he published his Tenebrae Offices for Holy Week —
a set each for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday comprising
three sets of three “nocturns” — proclaiming his authorship. (This is in
stark contrast to his Books of Madrigals, which remained anonymous —
composition of secular works unthinkable for a nobleman of the period,
despite strong hints to their authorship in his dedications.) This intense,
boldly chromatic music of lamentation is rarely heard Eastertide material,
especially programmed as comprehensively as here by the six elite